Keystones: Connecting Israelis to Jewish Identity with Itamar Kremer

Itamar Kremer, VP of Education and Innovation
Masa Israel

Disclaimer: This podcast episode was recorded prior to October 7, 2023, and reflects discussions and perspectives as of that date.

Sharon Freundel:

I’m Sharon Freundel, Managing Director of the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC). Welcome to JEIC’s Keystones Podcast Series. The keystone is the central stone at the summit of an arch, locking the whole together. We believe that a strong Jewish Day School education is what holds the Jewish people together as we look towards the next generation.

In today’s episode, we will hear from Itamar Kremer from Masa Israel on reconsidering the fostering of Jewish identity and Israel education through connections between Israelis and world Jewry.

Itamar Kremer:

With the ethos of Zionism, we found out that many people in Israel, many kids in Israel, do not deal with their Jewish identity until they get to the army, and then it might be too late. And when I say Jewish identity, I talk about Jewish peoplehood. I am talking about the different ways to engage your identity, your belonging.

So Masa Israel started in 2005 as a joint venture for the Israeli Ministry of Education and with the NGO that we started, and we were great until COVID, and then COVID, and then no one goes out. And when we decided to re-shape Masa Israel, we understood that the message that we had been carrying is crucial, also, for world Jewry. Understanding that Israelis cannot deal with their Jewish identity without actually meeting with their peers from around the world, the majority of world Jewry do not live in Israel, most of Israelis do not know that. The secret is that most of the Israelis do not care about that.

So once we deal with Israelis’ identity, we have to do it together with world Jewry, understanding that there are many ways to be Jewish. In Israel, there are only two ways or two, let's say, gateways to Jewish identity – Tanach v’Palmach. The fact that you are religious or non religious, but this is your way to attempt to reflect on your Jewish identity. And the other way is Zionism. “We gave so much for this land, and then I pay my taxes, I go to the army, and then I don't need to do anything else in order to be Jewish,” and it's not the same thing.

The hypothesis that we are trying to work with is the contact hypothesis; it’s from the 50’s and 60’s sociology, understanding that in order to create an effective mifgash (meeting), we need to create equal terms, and it has to be fair. There shouldn't be any hidden agenda for the mifgash, which means that the group, let's say, from Maryland or from New Jersey or from Mexico, when they participate in our program, if there are 15, then there are 15 Israelis, which are their designated peer group. They meet with them. They work with them, but they have different goals.

The goal of Israelis is to have their own journey, their own masa yisraeli (Israel journey). The goal of those who came from abroad is to have their own journey. Then Israel is only a trigger; it's not the main thing. We didn't come here to meet with Israelis, and the Israelis do not come here to meet Jews from the diaspora. Understanding to equal terms; there is no guest and host in our tools. There is no, we try to get people to work beyond the theoretical and anecdotal questions. What do you love to eat? What is your favorite music? We talk about ourselves with our needs. We don't talk politics. We talk about our own story, every person and his own story, and we try to create a mifgash which is not only based on dialogue, it engages their own journey in their own Jewish identity through Israel, through meeting with other Jews that choose to live a different way maybe.

When we took kids from a Reform community together with an Orthodox community from Israel, it was like we waited for the bomb to explode. But it didn't. It didn't because the kids didn't talk about their opinions. They talked about feelings and how they feel. Why is it so important for them to live the way they live? And we created the mifgash.

I think that one of the things that I'm most proud of is that it's a very strict program. We are very, very careful with things that are controversial, and it's not only, like, stereotype-based. So it's very, very strict; we know exactly when to get the people to dance together, to sing together, to play together, to sit and talk together. About a third of our time is reflection time. When you go to the desert hike, and then you sit for a whole hour and write yourself, write a letter to your future self. And then you meet with other kids and you talk about this experience for another hour.

And when we took kids from two locations to do it together, we understand that there’s so much in common – being 16, or being 13, is not easy. And to carry the burden of identity, of being part of people, it's something that people when they start to be engaged to, it's another keystone in their identity, and it's another thing that they are. And I think this is the biggest present that we give; you can build your own, using others’ knowledge, others’ feelings. And I think this is the most innovative thing about this program.

I think the most important thing in Jewish identity is the question mark. And I think that once we stop teaching Jewish identity and we start asking Jewish identity, and we start asking questions about it, we need knowledge. We need to be articulate about particulars about history, about language, about Hebrew, about Israel, about culture, about everything. But the most important question is the question of “why” for this generation, for zed and for alphas, nothing is for granted. For my generation, I mean, yeah, Israel is not for granted. And being Jewish is not for granted after the Holocaust. I'm a third generation and having cousins in the US, it's something that I grew up with, but now most of the kids do not have cousins that live in Israel, they have family, but it's not as related as it was for my generation. I have good friends and cousins that live here. My kids do not. So it's a big change. So nothing is for granted for them. And so we need to start the question of why Jewish identity, of why Israel, of why Ivrit (Hebrew)?

And I think that this is what we do. We get them to look at the mirror and to ask themself from inside, “Why will I choose to be part of this amazing people? Why will I choose to support or to have any relations with the State of Israel?” I think that this is the most important thing that we're trying to do.

I think that our biggest challenge, and it's the same challenge in Israeli school systems and in American Jewish Day School system, is the future because I'm not sure that we're going to have schools in 30 or 50 years from now. And the question how we engage the kids, in many means, through the parents, through their grandparents, through technology, through a local community that will start their own educational thing, not only school, and I think that the biggest challenge in this transformation is to have core values that we will stand for, that the whole school system will be totally different 30 to 50 years from now, and I think that's the biggest challenge, and this is what we're trying to do.

Sharon Freundel:

To find out more about this topic and other ways to catalyze radical improvement in Jewish Day Schools, please visit our website at JewishChallenge.org.